Kira Cousins, 23, has broken her silence after a global scandal in which she passed off a plastic doll as her newborn daughter. The former supermarket worker duped her boyfriend and family into believing she was pregnant, then stunned them with a reborn baby doll she called Bonnie-Leigh Joyce.
The Deception
For months, Cousins wore a fake pregnancy bump, shared ultrasound scans, and organised a gender reveal party where she and ex-partner Jamie Gardner celebrated expecting a girl. She also shared AI-generated clips appearing to show the baby moving inside her, and documented prenatal appointments, claiming a cardiac abnormality.
Gardner said he genuinely believed the doll was real. 'If I had ever known that was really a doll, I'd have run off sooner,' he told the Sunday Mail.
The Explanation
Cousins said she miscarried but could not bring herself to tell Gardner. 'I can hold my hands up and say, "No, I shouldn't have used a doll", but at the same time, nobody knows what our relationship was like,' she said. She claimed she tried to tell him but he did not listen.
Gardner denied this, saying he has no memory of her trying to inform him of a miscarriage. He said he discovered the truth 'not through her'.
The Exposure
The deception unraveled after a car journey when younger family members said the 'baby' was a doll. Cousins said her mother later found the doll hidden in her bedroom. Gardner had taken the doll to his parents' house and no one suspected. 'Everyone in that house saw it and none of them twigged,' Cousins said.
She eventually told Gardner the truth. 'He said, "You're a psycho," and walked out. That was the last time we've ever saw each other,' she said.
Aftermath
Cousins said she has spoken to Gardner since, but the relationship is over. Gardner said: 'I want to get as far away from her as possible. I just want to move on with my life.' Cousins also pulled out of a scheduled television documentary about the controversy.
